Starting A Business – What Business Gurus Do Not Tell You

We’ve had some challenges hiring people and it’s been interesting. This is some of the stuff gurus will not tell you. Because everybody online has a course that makes it seem like it’s so easy. Let me introduce you to Verlyncia. She’s been here and she’s had some trials and tribulations. She’s going to talk about it. With that, I’ll turn it over to her.

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I haven’t been in a Human Resources role for about ten years. It has been a little different here hiring for a small company. We’ve been using Craigslist to rally all of our candidates. Coming from New York, If you look on Craigslist, there are a lot of good jobs. People don’t want to use recruiters because they cost a lot of money. In New York, you have to pay a headhunter to find a decent person or use referrals.

Usually the first two days, you get a heavy response on Craigslist. Typically, you can expect 100 to 200 responses over a two-day period. That’s enough candidates for you to find one good applicant, fingers crossed.

But Atlanta is a little different. If you’ve ever seen the job section in Atlanta’s Craigslist, typically it’s made up of administrative assistant and executive assistant positions. So, when I first came down here I took a step back after contracting in New York. I was working with a headhunter here and Creative Circle to get gigs. So, I had two people working on my behalf to get gigs.

Then I looked on Craigslist because that’s what people do up North. I was looking at the ads and thought all of these things look flat out sketchy. But, I figured if I was looking at it, that other people were looking at it as well.

So, we decided to do the whole hiring process through Craigslist. We put up an ad to see what kind of candidates would come through. One of the main problems we had was people just didn’t show up. I don’t get it.

The few people we did get in were super underqualified and probably didn’t pay attention to the ad or the requirements. They just weren’t qualified. We got a lucky random person who actually works with us now. She oversees ecommerce. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if my prayers went up to God or something. When she walked in the door, I said, “Thank you God” under my breath. It just happened to be a perfect fit.

Then we decided to hire the next position. After reviewing our ad, I decided to add some details to it. The original ad didn’t have enough details.

I believe you have to tell people exactly what you want. Tell people what the position is and what it entails. You also have to explain what they’ll get in return if they decide to join us. Transparency is important.

What we didn’t do the second time that we will do this time coming up, is we didn’t put minimal qualifications. We need to have at least two to three years’ experience. We don’t have the time to train people. We’re not looking for rock starts, but we’re not looking for a fresh person just out of the womb.

We have several openings. All of the positions need to come into the office between 9 to 5. Due to quality control and some of the issues we’ve had with freelancers, we just feel more comfortable having people onsite.

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Glendon adds his comments.

One of the reasons we’re doing this video is because there’s so much stuff out there where people don’t really tell you the truth about running a business. Everybody that I am talking to that runs a business is going through the same thing we are. I have a friend who is a recruiter and friends who own a car wash and another that owns a real estate agency. I also have a buddy with a PR firm. I asked my friends, “What’s going on?” They all said the same thing. “This is the environment we are operating in.”

People say things like just go out and grab somebody and it will work out. That’s not realistic. People can be broke and choosy.

Tomorrow we’re going to start Digital Introductions. You can’t buy anything, but you have to get on the email list. I’m going to send out something real nice to everybody on the email list.

Verlyncia has been working her ass off hiring people. Hiring is not easy. It’s really not. I’ll just put that out there.

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Verlyncia adds comments

I’ve been hiring for maybe the last month now. Once we hired people, I was working on my own tasks and helping out with their work. Everybody’s still fairly new. For the next round of interviews, I’m probably going to use Skype. That way, you’re not waiting on someone to possibly show up. You’re not wasting anyone’s time. If you’re filtering out people, you can get that done in the first interview via the phone or Skype.

We’ve just hired people and we’ve already had a staff meeting. We already had a mediation session. It was very clear when we hired people that they need to come in to the office on Monday through Friday from 9 to 5. People acted like they were down for it and now they want to work from home. I reminded them, “You know that wasn’t the deal.” People say things like, “I thought you could cut me some slack.”

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Glendon adds comments

Question: How has hiring changed since you’ve been in business?

Answer: My definition of a Yard Bird in 2000 was someone who would come late, but they would work. They were someone with a little attitude, but they would work. Today my definition of Yard Bird is people who get on the phone and tell you they are coming for an interview and then they don’t show up. When you call them, they won’t answer the phone. This is something new. This is crazy.

Tomorrow we’re going to start selling Digital Introductions. We’re going to make this all sexy. We’re going step by step.

We’re going to use two cameras and do live training. If you want the recorded version, you have to pay for it. It’s going to be like, 30 Days to $2500. Digital Introductions is going to teach you how to sell and market. It’s invaluable.

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